Back in 2008 the week building up to the World Wide Invitational 2008 was a fun one. This website was originally Diablo3.com and then blizzard approached them for the name and then we got diablofans.com in the end. That helped people set the rumor mill on high alert. As the week progressed the new teasers each day adding a new clue as the ice slowly broke away revealed many things.

Each day the community speculated over what they meant. I remember seeing a protoss glyph and then eventually a Diablo 2 rune. Then a circle with 3 rings. People then thought it was like a solar system with the then 3 blizzard universes. Then the near final image showed eyes glowing and and then a feint tusk. People thought at one point it was a hydralisk or something.

Then the day finally came and then the new incarnation of Diablo came into view with the Reveal trailer the day the WW:08 started. It was practically a mini Blizzcon really. I still remember the live stream was on a link that popped up the stream. The streams lag was pretty bad and it wasn't even widescreen.

When the lag finally subsided then I could see the trailer. That day I started making wallpapers for the game.

I posted it here and on diabloii.net (then called diii.net when d3 came about.) From there I decided to break outta my then comfort zone and started painting the diablo 2 runes larger and trying to give them a fiery feeling. At first I added them to my early profile art.

Then later I did the same to all 33 of them. Then used a fireworks 4 effect that allowed me to make a star with 33 points and made an evenly spaced rune circle that made the runes where they would be. Then I'd use the warp tool and made them lay at a nice angle then started putting the denizens of that world in the middle helping me make the Fiery Runes Series.

Over the years I'd make many wallpaper series. Sometimes with concept art, line art to give an old feeling like the Book of Cain would eventually give us.

Other times I'd remake D3 artwork that was in screenshots and like some of the Monks early runes and glyphs.

As well as the wallpapers that would come from them:

I was very proud of those. I tried to reproduce them so hard and then when the then computer I had; the hard drive would fail and I lost that artwork and would have to remake one of them again from scratch Hell here's the WIP i posted on diabloii.net.

I would also make my own fan art for Diablo as well. It may not be as good as others but I'm still proud of it.

Later I would make Calendars for each month that I could and also make them for that current year AND eventually for the EU. But at one point I started making uni-calendars that would have the month and the days but those days and months would neither have the years nor the weekdays on them so people could use them more than once. That way the wallpaper and calendar wouldn't become dated by the end of that month.

Then eventually in march Reaper of Souls would come out but for me unfortunately my biological father would pass on from this world as I posted the final wallpapers of the first part of the Acts 5 series.

That would also garner a change in the fiery runes into one of my favorite changes the runes would be called The Soulfyre runes, Still keeping the moniker of Fiery Runes. This time with a more "souly" look. That series became the largest one spanning 55 wallpapers.

In this series I experimented on many ideas as well as unique and fun things.

I also did tributes as well for people effected by bad events as well.

I also made my first ultra-wide wallpaper during my 7th anniversary during this series.

Later the Necromancer Pack would come out and Then I decided to end the Soulfyre series and start Essence based on the Necromancer's resource.

Then During Blizzcon 2018 the much spirited reveal of Diablo: Immortal a mobile diablo game that has spurned so much vitrol in the community I still tried to make wallpapers for the game and will continue after Diablofans fades away...

The latter days of Diablofans was a somber one as we say good bye to one of the few remaining pillars of the diablo community. We say goodbye and thank those who gave us a website to speak our minds and let us post fan art/fan fiction/ and Diablo Wallpaper/OS art. Thank you guys for this website and the community that was here. We'll find a new place eventually. Either in r/diablo or elsewhere. Thanks guys for a place I could post my wallpapers. Especially back when you guys had a small gallery at one point before that was removed.

Well, the news hit the frontpage, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's shocked, surprised, and extremely saddened by it. I can sort of understand aspects of it - traffic has gone down, and from a mod view I can say that I have to remove more spam posts each day than I can enjoy reading new posts. Nevertheless, I thought this could've been a nice place to hang out even if the franchise is going downhill (is it though?). But well. Ain't gonna happen.

But instead of endless complaining about things we can't change, why don't we all revisit our past, share our memorable DFans moments, and take a look into the future? Look at your post history to go down the memory lane. So, I'll start:

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I joined Diablofans about six and a half years ago because I had a stupid question about making an Inferno tank barb to support my two DH friends. That kind of didn't go anywhere, so I switched to my other main char (Archon wizard) which should soon become my passion. To share some of the insights I gained from reading up and theorycrafting some of the wizard stuff, I wrote a guide which maybe some of you remember (RoS edition as the old one was from the old forum software and looks ugly, but the first one was written over Christmas 2012). I continued to make a few guides (see thread history, some I didn't even remember like an 1-70 leveling guide, lol) and also my small website (http://d3resource.com/), I think the reason for making D3Resource was that I needed a domain to host my CHD vs CHC calc.

I don't remember when I became mod, because that really didn't matter; what I do remember is the lot of awesome people that I met on Diablofans, ingame, or on both channels. Some of those have sadly long gone, like Jaetch and Loroese - the two best wizard theorycrafters Diablo had (pre-RoS). I also have to mention overneathe, who introduced me to the DFans mod world (without him I wouldn't be here), and his successor Zero(pS). We didn't just play DIablo - do you guys remember the Terraria times? That was fun! There are so many more names I can and probably should list, but many of them were unfortunately purged in the recent transition phase when Fandom took over, and many don't check this forum anymore. But if you do please say high in here!!!

Unfortunately over the years the forum became more and more inactive, and I prefer old-school forums much, much more than Reddit (I just can't deal with the strange thread style, makes it impossible to read "all new posts") and even worse all the video-based info (I'd rather read a long, well-written guide than watch a 10 minute video on Youtube). But I guess that makes me a dinosaur, I dying breed, one that doesn't like to play games on phones ;-)

So, what's up next? I will maintain D3Resource, at least for now. I might lag behind with some updates, honestly, but the best way to contact me is shoot me a Reddit message. I think I'm still behind on the S16 season overview but honestly... not in the mood right now, given recent events. Also, work. If I ever were to abandon D3Resource, I would probably zip all the source code and throw it to someone, so no worries, it won't magically disappear. But it's a static website and I host a lot of old stuff (like a forum that has a much older community, founded in 1997, with less than 10 posts over the last 10 years ;-)). No worries.

I'm not sure about my personal future in Diablo. To be honest, as I expressed here, my view on Blizzard/Diablo shifted. I literally played 8-10 hours for the last 4 seasons each (went online, got a power level, rushed to get Guardian done as fast as possible, delete). S16 took me a bit more than 7 hours to finish Guardian. I'm not sure it's gonna be more given that D3 feels a bit stale to me and PoE looks so much more exciting. I just recently started (~2 months ago) but If someone has a place for a noob (I just played up 3 builds and tried to learn as much as possible, but only tried Shaper once and no kill yet) let me know, I'm sort of looking for a guild, preferably with Discord (and potentially forum, haha, you know me). What a cheap plug, but well, gotta seize the opportunity! I'm also occasionally playing SC2 co-op which I really enjoy (and watching WCS). Once Dfans is gone, I'll continue posting on Reddit, I'm regularly in the chat channel of svr's Discord (where we discuss D3, PoE, and SC2),and maybe we meet elsewhere. See my battle tag in my forum profile (bagstone#2613) or PoE (bagstone).

Super simple concept - just as you doing the Season Journey click on a task to keep an overview of what you have done and what still needs to be done. The status is saved in a cookie. Pay attention to the in-game popups because you can complete many season journey objectives that aren't even visible yet, so this website might help you to keep an overview.

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I personally think Challenge Rifts could have been much more if they were implemented properly. The problems with them however are quite fixable. Here are some of the most mentioned problems associated with CRifts:

1) The selected builds are bad/not fun - This is the most mentioned problem discussed at all forums regarding CRifts. The players simply don't like the automatic selection algorithm and the snapshotted builds. This however could sometimes be due to the fact that they find them hard to complete. A possible solution would be to implement a voting process, lower the original tier by 20% and allow tier progression.

2) The rewards don't scale with one's accomplishments - Simply said, you play more, you get nothing for it, even the LB is not permanent. A possible solution would be the rewards to be scaled with the tier progression and a permanent LB to be found in-game.

3) Only one class per week - If the player is forced to play an exact class/build there is very high chance the majority will not complete the weekly challenge. A possible solution would be the inclusion of all 7 classes in the weekly pool.

4) CRifts does not involve pushing - The offered snapshots are low tier fast times. While a competition could be build around everything, the skill factor in fast times is a lot lower than this involved during a pushing activity. This simply means that the majority of the competitive players will skip the CRifts as long as there is no tier progression, which will allow a pushing activity to be executed.

There are also a lot of other more minor problems like specific RNG factors and no global competition. Whether you find the CRift mode unfinished or not, share what could be done in order more people to play these and take part in the CRift competition.

I have started collecting farming data on Goblins, in order to better track down Rainbow Goblins. Over the last 10 days I have run 32 different maps 10 times each, doing full clears until I find a goblin or run out of places to look. I'm posting my results to help people decide which maps to run, but keep in mind that clear times are the important thing, and we are all going to have different clear times.

I chose maps that I've heard people talk about in goblin farming communities, Both good and bad.

Act 1:

1. Festering Woods - 11/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

2. Cathedral 1 - 31/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

3. Leoric's Passage - 30/100

4. Cathedral 2 - 14/100

5. Cathedral 3 - 16/100

6. Cathedral 4 - 21/100

7. Royal Crypts - 17/100

8. Southern Highlands - 9/100

9. Cave of the Moon Clan Level 1 - 25/100

10. Cave of the Moon Clan Level 2 - 29/100 (2 Rainbow Goblins)

11. Northern Highlands - 48/100

12. Leoric's Hunting Ground - 26/100

13. Fields of Misery - 0/100

Act 2:

14. Howling Plateau - 36/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

15. Stinging Winds - 21/100

16. Ancient Waterways West Level 1 - 13/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

17. Ancient Waterways West Level 2 - 19/100

18. Ancient Waterways East Level 1 - 16/100

19. Ancient Waterways East Level 2 - 17/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

20. Dahlgur Oasis - 0/100

Act 3:

21. The Battlefields - 18/100

22. The Fields of Slaughter (Bridge of Korsikk Waypoint) - 17/100

23. Rakkis Crossing - 29/100

24. Underbridge - 16/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

25. Tower of the Damned Level 1 - 39/100

26. Tower of the Damned Level 2 - 27/100

27. Heart of the Damned - 11/100

28. Core of Arreat - 33/100

29. Stonefort - 17/100

Act 4:

30. Gardens of Hope Level 1 - 31/100

31. Gardens of Hope Level 2 - 13/100

Act 5:

32. Pandemonium Fortress Level 1* - 46/100 (1 Rainbow Goblin)

*Pandemonium Fortress Level 1 had 23 Goblin Encounters, for a total of 46 Goblins. This level contains 0 or 2 Goblins.

Total Rainbow Goblin Encounters = 9

Total Goblin Encounters = 651

Please feel free to test out maps and post results as well, 100 is a fairly small sample size and I'd love for more people to collect goblin data.

The next step in the process of determining which routes to take, or which single map to run, would come down to clear times. Clear times are basically from Clicking "Start Game" until the next time you can click "Start Game." Loading in AND out is part of clear times and has a huge impact on single map runs! I'd love to start posting average times of different class' farming setups to help people pick a class and route... but that will be a project for the future.

TL;DR -

Goblins are most common on these individual maps: Tower of the Damned, Core of Arreat, Gardens of Hope Level 1, Cathedral Level 1, Leoric's Passage, Northern Highlands, and Pandemonium Level 1.

Goblins are also fairly common in these multi-level maps: Ancient Waterways, Rakkis Crossing + Underbridge, Cave of the Moon Clan.

The frequency of encountering goblins does matter, but only when balanced with clear times.

Now that the only challenge is in the Greater Rifts, what if we had an endgame campaign mode, where we could play the campaign from the beginning with our endgame characters? The rewards would be granted after each act, some of them once and some as many time as wanted. The Act V reward is granted according to a gr based difficulty level.

Rewards can be adjusted, of course. Now there would be a way to get stash tab in non seasonal too.

Note that unlike in gr, now you can deal with the gr70 difficulty level with your gr67 character as there is no timer. Death's breaths would drop along the way and player could change between game modes when desired. Wild idea: double the bounty materials gained if died only 1, 2 or 3 times during the campaign.

Once you've defeated Malthael in the normal campaign or in the adventure mode, the endgame campaign mode becomes available at your campaign mode slot.

EDIT: New ACT 2 Reward:

Urshi's Gift :: Player may update one legendary gem instantly to the same level he/she is playing the campaign through.

ACT 1 reward is granted every time the campaign is played through but player can wear only one item at a time that's imbued with a Gift. The item becomes purple colored Unique Legendary when Cydaea's Gift is used to it.

This year I've been suggesting and discussing whether there is room for Runewords in Diablo 3. Some of the conclusions after all the debate:

- Not as rare as in D2- Shouldn't create powercreep- Should be modernized as a system- Should provide increased build variations

Now I'm definitely done with suggesting. However, here's the final solution I've come up with according to all feedback. Pretty simplified and traditional system compared the more complicated iterations but simplicity is beautiful.

1. About 10 different runes2. About as rare as Consumables3. Uses the same sockets as everything else4. Runewords are formed throughout the gear5. One rune can form multiple Runewords

Forces player to decide whether to use gems or runes and in some cases, whether even to replace a legendary gem with a rune.

Pretty busy photoshop but you get the idea. Thank you for reading and have a nice gaming with Diablo 3.

Season 10 Meta Changes

Season 10 is just around the corner, starting in less than a week on March 31. Following Patch 2.5.0, which introduced the Armory and Quality of Life changes such as crafting materials storage, Season 10 will offer players a smoother Diablo 3 experience. For console players, this will be their first time experiencing Seasons.

As always, there are the cosmetic rewards that each season offers: a portrait, pennant, and some transmogs, in addition to giving you another chance at an extra stash tab if you're not already capped. This will be the first season we see Primal Ancients in play, albeit they don’t really shake up the current meta that much.

Season 10 will have more group-viable builds than the previous seasons (with the exception of Season 6). Let’s look at the two new builds shaking up the 4 Player meta in Season 10.

Impale Demon Hunter

With the addition of the affix buffing Impale to the item Holy Point Shot, Demon Hunters received a huge buff to their Rift Guardian damage potential. With this buff, the Demon Hunter now offers enough damage to challenge the Generator Monk for its spot as RG killer in groups. While it yet remains to be seen if the Demon Hunter can overthrow the Monk for this spot, it will remain very competitive in group play, and, at the very least, kills RGs faster than the Monk does in speeds (fast lower GR clears for gem upgrades/paragon).

Lightning Hydra Wizard

While we’ve already seen the Lightning Wizard in Season 9, it wasn’t very competitive, and it was pretty much just used for speeds. However, that's all changing in Patch 2.5.0. Manald Heal now allows pets to proc the damage of Manald Heal, which boosts the damage potential of the Wizard. With this change, the damage output of the Wizard rivals - and even outpaces - the Generator Monk. While it’s clear that the Wizard definitely beats the Demon Hunter and the Monk in lower GRs, it’s still unsure if it will come out on top, as the Monk stacks stricken better than the other two can. Either way, there will definitely be a spot for the Wizard in most groups.

Season 10 is fast approaching, bringing with it a new season in which all but 1 class will see competitive group play (with the Crusader being nowhere in sight since Season 6). Outside of the competitive scene, Patch 2.5.0 brings along with it many changes that allow for more builds to be viable, and I highly recommend looking at some of our user submitted builds and giving them a try. Once again, Season 10 will begin on the 31st of March at 5 PM PDT for NA, 5 PM CEST for EU, and 5 PM KST in Asia.